The Darkest Road
by Writer-Steph-94
Summary: A woman from the future appears unexpectedly in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place and the Order learns of the horror that is to come. Is her sudden appearance a blessing in disguise? Will they be able to prevent the hell she's lived from coming to pass?
1. Chapter 1

Macaria awoke unsettled and unsure, something she was not used to and not comfortable with in the slightest. She could sense people around her, one or two wizards...and one were-wolf. She was taking stock of her situation and assessing herself for injuries when she felt someone touch her. She hadn't meant to but it was reflex. Her eyes, the colour of dried blood, snapped open instantly and without thinking she took the hand that rested on her shoulder and with one seamless motion swung whoever it was over her body then followed till she was straddling their middle with one of the daggers she had hidden in the leather bracers on her forearms. There was a gasp and a loud curse from somewhere and she realised she had the were-wolf of all people pinned and with ease, though that could be because she had a silver athame at his throat and it was most likely burning his flesh or at least causing him severe discomfort from the proximity of it. Should she nick his flesh however...he would be dead in minutes.

"Who are you and where am I?" Macaria growled at the wolf beneath her as she pressed the blade a little harder against his throat. She could feel someone contemplating drawing their wand on her but calculated that she would be able to kill the wolf and still get out of the way of any on-coming curses should they attempt it.

"I am Remus Lupin..."

"Don't lie to me! Lupin died in the first years of the war, he was one of the first to go. Too close to Harry. Now I won't ask again, who are you and where the fuck am I?" She cut over him with a snarl. Her eyes flashed dangerously as she leaned closer to the wolf so he could see, so he could look her in the eyes, and know she was not kidding.

"I can assure you I am Remus Lupin and I most certainly not dead. As for where you are you're in the Head Quarters of the Order of the Phoenix." The wolf replied. He was trying to stay calm but Macaria could see the clear signs of fear in him, she was trained to. She could also tell he wasn't lying which made things a lot more complicated as the only way he could be Remus Lupin was if she was in the past. Then it started filtering back; the fight she had been in, watching as they tore down her allies and her friends one by one. Only she, Harry and Angelo had escaped alive. But they had been followed, she had sent the two men on ahead, Harry was too important to loose. She on the other hand was expendable. Fighting, dueling, then being hit by that weird spell and waking here...fifteen years in the past. Before anyone could stop her she withdrew the knife, stood up and offered her hand to Lupin to help him up which he accepted with a confused and wary expression.

"My apologies Mister Lupin but in the time I come from you're dead and we're in the middle of a war so you must forgive my not believing you." She apologized stiffly as she slid the athame back into it's hidden sheath. Lupin's green eyes widened in shock as he took in what she was saying while whoever else was in the room with them stumbled over words and expletives.

"Your time?" Lupin enquired with a hint of uncertainty in his voice. She nodded her head, some of her silvery blonde hair fell into her face as she did so but it was quickly swept aside so she could begin analyzing the full extent of her situation. There was only one other in the room with her and Lupin; he was tall, slim built- as if he was recovering from severe malnutrition for an extended period of time- with wavy black hair that reached his chin and haunted grey eyes that she knew too well. Those were the eyes of someone who had spent a lot of time within close proximity to Dementors, something she was all too well acquainted with as they were one of the favored methods of torture the Dark Side used in her time. The only person this could be then, if she remembered what Harry had told her correctly: it was Sirius Black.

"Yes. As far as I have been able to ascertain I am now roughly fifteen years in the past and before you ask, no I am not entirely sure how I got here though I do have one or two theories and one bitch I fully intend to hunt down and gut when I return to my appropriate time period." Macaria replied shortly. She was not pleased. She needed to get back to her time as soon as possible, she had a war to fight and allies that needed her especially Harry. He had already lost almost everyone else, she knew when she had told him to run that loosing her would destroy him but she also knew that loosing Angelo would kill him. It was a calculated sacrifice on her part but regardless, she was still alive and she needed to assure him of that before any false rumors of her death reached him.

"Right. Well, as you err already know who I am could I possibly ask who you are?" Lupin asked hesitantly as he ran a hand wearily through his greying sandy hair.

"Macaria Blackthorn. I'm also known as the Hand of Midas or The Red Queen." Macaria stated with the same tone and military precision a soldier would give when asked rank and title. She unsettled the two men in the room, she could tell. But then again how often does a petite woman dressed in dragon hide with more scars than skin end up on the floor of your house claiming to be from the future?

"And we're supposed to just take you word for it that you're from the future?" Black demanded, speaking coherently for the first time since she had regained consciousness. His grey eyes were focused and cold as he regarded her and she him, he was sensible to question her. Trusting people got you killed where she was from.

"No but I'm sure you have many and varied ways of ascertaining whether I am indeed telling the truth not least of which would be casting a truth spell. That failing I believe you are not incapable of obtaining Veritaserum or as a last resort using Legilimency." She replied coldly as she quirked an eyebrow in silent challenge to the man who seemed to give her an appraising look for a moment before nodding to his friend and gesturing for her to take a seat at what must have been the kitchen table. She took the seat facing to doorway, as was her norm, and the two men took seats opposite her, both regarding her differently.

"Verum asseverare." Lupin intoned softly but with a hardness that surprised her, she had always heard that the wolf was rather mild-mannered and as far as she had seen the assessment of his character was true.

"Now let's see if you're really who you say you are. Who are you and how did you get here?" Black demanded harshly.

"Macaria Nyx Blackthorn. I am the Hand of Midas and the Red Queen. I arrived here through an un-known spell thrown at me by Anya Devlin, known Death Eater and follower of the Dark Lord during a the battle to attempt to regain Kings Cross." Macaria spoke in the monotone voice she reserved for when she gave her reports at the end of missions. She had to do it, to cut herself off from the emotion, to separate herself from the horrors she would be speaking of or she would be unable to function. She was a warrior, a soldier, and she did what was necessary to survive. They all did.

"Where are you from?"

"I come from the year 2010. I was born and raised near the Scottish border in Cumberland on the Blackthorn family estate."

"How old are you? When were you born?"

"I was born the 2nd of February 1981. I am 29 years of age."

"Do you ever or have you ever followed Voldemort?"

"Never nor would I ever. I have been fighting against him almost my whole life."

Lupin and Black exchanged a look before Lupin muttered a "Finite." to end the spell which had she lied would have caused her a great deal of pain.

"Well shit. I think we need to call in the Order." Black cursed as he dragged a hand over his gaunt face. Lupin nodded his agreement and disappeared to summon the others leaving Macaria and Black in the kitchen together alone.


	2. Chapter 2

A short time later found the varying members of the Order who were not working, on missions or otherwise occupied joining Remus Lupin, an irate Sirius Black and a silent Macaria in the kitchen of Grimmauld place. The entire time Lupin had been floo-calling the Order members she had sat silently, ignoring Sirius' questions about her, her time and the innumerable scars and wounds that marred her skin. When everyone was sat down with Dumbledore at the head of the table they began shooting the strange scarred blonde woman odd looks, wondering as to who she was and if she was the reason they were there.  
"Now that we are all here I believe Sirius and Remus have some news that I believe involves our mysterious guest?" Dumbledore stated in that irritatingly grandfatherly tone of his while his blue eyes twinkle behind the half moon spectacles.  
"Yes. Earlier this evening she appeared here and after questioning and submitting to a truth spell we have discovered she is from the future. Fifteen years from now in fact where as far as I can tell the war is still going on." Lupin told the room which caused an eruption of murmured conversations and speculations until their leader raised his voice, effectively silencing them.  
"And you are certain that this true? I was not aware that travel this far back in time was possible?" He enquired, the twinkle in his eye brightening.  
"We questioned her under a truth spell which she willingly submitted to, everything she said was true." Black elaborated. This seemed to annoy the blonde woman who turned dangerously flashing maroon colored eyes on the dog animagus, her heart shaped face hard in her ire.  
"She has a fucking name you ill-mannered mutt." Macaria snapped, startling many as this was the first the majority of the room had heard her speak. Some gasped at her foul language while others simply regarded her with wary interest.  
"Yes, sorry about that. We have only just met so you will have to forgive our unfamiliarity with your name Miss Blackthorn." Lupin said in an attempt to assuage her irritation with them which only seemed to annoy the woman further as her nostrils flared and her eyes narrowed onto the were-wolf now.  
"Do not call me 'Miss Blackthorn' ever again. My name is Macaria, use it."  
"Of course my dear, we are terribly sorry. It isn't often we get visitors from the future as I'm sure you can imagine. Could you possibly explain to the best of your ability how you came to be here?" Dumbledore cut in before the time-travelers agitation could escalate. Macaria turned her unsettling gaze on the old man now and simply stared at him for a long moment before flicking her eyes over the other members of the group. When her eyes rested on Snape he eyes darkened with insurmountable fury though her face remained impassive till they were nothing more than two black storms set against the pale gold of her scarred skin.  
"I will say nothing in front of that Death Eater." She spat. Though she said only a handful of words they were laced with so much venom and hate that many recoiled in their seats.  
"Severus is a member of the Order, I trust him..."  
"Yes and it is your blind trust in him that gets you and almost everyone else in this room killed. He is a sniveling piece of scum who should have been drowned at birth so as to prevent the atrocities he would one day commit. I will speak nothing of myself or my time while Riddle's lap-dog sit's in this room as if he wasn't a cowardly little murderer." Macaria snarled her now entirely black eyes burning with dark fire. Snape looked furious at her words and made to draw his wand but with lightening fast reflexes born on the battle field she was already standing with her wand drawn and pointed at his throat. No one moved or spoke for a moment as they registered what had just happened.  
"What do you mean by all of that? Professor Snape has been our spy in You-Know-Who's ranks for a long time, at great personal risk and Professor Dumbledore believes we can trust him." Molly Weasley interjected a little huffily, she clearly did not approve of Macaria anymore in this time than she had in their brief acquaintance in the future.  
"I mean that in my time that man sits at the right hand of the one you know as Voldemort and is responsible for orchestrating some of the most gruesome and vile mass-killings the world has ever seen. He was the one responsible for the murder of several influential people in the start of the war and later he was the one who caused the...the Cardiff Massacre or as some of his kind call it 'The Mid-Summer Festival of Blood'." She choked out, her voice shaking with anger as she spoke till she got to the Massacre where her voice almost failed her and her eyes gained a horrified, haunted look that chilled those who saw it to the bone.  
"The Festival of Blood?" Black enquired though he dreaded the answer.  
"Summer of 2002 Severus Snape finalizes a potion which is then released into Cardiff's water supply one night. We realized too late what had been done and...when we got there, there aren't words to describe the horror of what I saw that day. Every street, every house, everywhere drenched in blood. The streets ran in rivers of it. White bloodless corpses littered the whole city. Men, women and children. The potion caused all the blood of anyone who ingested it, no matter how small the quantity, to pour out of their skin. From what we gathered he had been working on it for Riddle for years, trying to perfect it for his master." Her voice was barely more than a whisper but it was all that was necessary in the silence of Grimmauld places kitchen. Wide eyes and pale disgusted looks were on nearly everyone in the room as they listened to her speak. This was their future, what awaited them in seven short years. The bubblegum pink haired woman Macaria vaguely recognized from Harry's few photograph's looked nauseous and the grizzled looking man she knew to be Alastor Moody who sat opposite her had a grim look about him. Black looked sickened but he was nothing compared to Lupin who looked like he had been shaken to his very core.  
"You are certain that it was Severus?" Dumbledore enquired softly, the ever present twinkle in his eye now entirely extinguished.  
"Do you know any other Potions Masters in service to Tom? Besides that when we caught and questioned him he admitted it. He was fucking proud of what he'd done. He laughed and sneered the entire way through the 'interrogation' you know? He wasn't laughing so much when Judgment came for him; though you never know, he could have been. Hard to tell over all his screaming." There was an oddly sadistic lilt to the way she said this and a hard gleam in her currently obsidian eyes. Her wand was still pointed directly at Snape's throat and the entire way through her outburst he had not dared to move a muscle other than to give his usual sneer, black eyes cold and uncaring. She had effectively ruined all of the Dark Lords carefully laid plans for him in one fell swoop unless he could convince the old fool she was lying.  
"Surely you don't actually believe this woman Headmaster?" Snape sneered though fear flickered in the depths of his black eyes. Clearly he was desperate. Macaria bared her teeth and snarled at him, she was the picture of controlled rage and sheer hatred as she raised her wand slightly from the greasy haired potions Professor and intoned: "I hereby do swear upon my magic that all I have spoken here this night is true. If this be false let my magic be taken from me in penance, so I do swear." Magic flared to life around her as she spoke then with vindictive satisfaction she threw wordless spell at the sneering Professor and he was thrown back from his chair to the floor with a pained cry. Stepping up onto the table she ignored the shocked gasps and cries as she stalked over the table top up toward the crumpled heap of a man, her eyes dark with hatred, till she jumped down and stood over his shivering form. With a sleight of her hand her wand was gone in an instant and in the next she was hauling Snape up by his greasy black hair and throwing him down onto the table she had just stepped down from. Releasing his hair she wrapped one strong, calloused hand around his throat and squeezed even as she summoned his wand. Black eyes bulged as he began to writhe and choke in her iron grip but she did not relent. Nor did she hear the cries to release him, to let him breathe. All she saw was the bloated corpses lying in their homes or floating in seas of their own blood, the few children found alive drenched in the sticky redness, screaming and screaming and screaming.  
"Miss Blackthorn I insist you release Severus at once!" Dumbledore admonished as he attempted to cast spell after spell at her to make her relinquish her hold on his potions master. But she did not. She gazed deep into his black, soulless eyes and tore through his mind like a raging storm, she ripped out all pertinent information or memories leaving gaping wounds and shredded defenses in her wake till she had taken all there was to see and at last released him by throwing him onto the flagstone floor with a disgusted curl of her lip. He was worthless now, in this time he knew little as his master was wary of putting someone with too much foreknowledge of his plans right into Dumbledore's hands despite the old fools blind trust in those around him. Someone rushed to check on the collapsed Death-Eater, she didn't care who, as she flipped herself onto the table and stalked back to her seat where she tossed herself back into it and regarded the room with her sanguine eyes.  
"What have you done to him?" The woman crouched next to the Death-Eater cried upon realising he was effectively catatonic now.  
"I tore all pertinent information from his mind. He will recover if he ever regains enough presence of mind to start repairing the damage I left behind, he should be back to his normal mind in a hundred years, give or take a decade." Macaria replied as she curved an eyebrow at them sardonically.  
"Severus is one of the most accomplished legilimens' I've ever met! How could you have possibly entered his mind?" The old fool cried in a mixture of amazement and disbelief.  
"It's one of the main reasons why I'm so high within the Gilded Paladins, I have the ability to enter any and everyone's mind at will. No amount of Occlumency has ever or will ever keep me out, not even Voldemort himself could keep me out." She spoke with a hint of pride in her voice but otherwise she was cold, closed off, speaking as one would of a mission report to her commanding officer. She was utterly detached, no emotion, despite having been enraged moments before.  
"Gilded Paladins? What the hell are they? Will you please explain who or what the hell you are? What is going on?"  
"The Gilded Paladins are the rebellion, those who fight against Riddle and his men, we're a worldwide organization and I stand at our leaders right hand. His code-name is Midas and mine is the Hand of Midas but to the Death Eaters I'm the Red Queen. And as for what's going on, you had better all be sitting comfortably because this might take a while."


End file.
